Congo: Cease-fire violations deepen humanitarian crisis

Samuel Birichera was forced to flee his home to the Bulengo camp for internally displaced people in Congo's North Kivu province due to the ongoing conflict in the region. The camp provides shelter for thousands of people who fled their homes in the area between Goma and Sake near Lake Kivu.

In March 2022, tensions flared as M23 rebels, after a decade of relative calm, launched attacks on Congolese army positions near the Uganda-Rwanda border.  Since then, they have seized large swathes of territory in an effort to gain a share of North Kivu's major deposits of copper, gold and diamonds. An uptick in violence forced local residents to flee, seeking safety from the escalating conflict. 

Recent clashes have sparked renewed worries about the durability of a cease-fire that began on August 4, aimed at stopping the conflict in the region and providing aid to millions in need. Previous cease-fires between the government and rebels have also been breached.

Birichera, who is in his 50s, said the humanitarian situation has not improved since he arrived at the camp earlier this year. He said that there is still a lack of food and medical care — depsite the cease-fire.

"We heard about the humanitarian truce, but we don't see the importance of it," he told DW. "We haven't received anything. The aid workers come to identify us and then they leave without giving us anything."

Birichera is frustrated by the current situation. "I think this truce is allowing the rebels to get organized, which is no good for us in any case," he added.

According to Doctors Without Borders, which also goes by its French acronym MSF, an estimated 6 million people have been killed so far due to the ongoing conflict in Congo.

It said in a report last week that over 5 million people have been displaced across Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu — including 2 million who have fled in just the last two years.

"As people continue to flee the fighting, displacement camps around Goma, the capital of North Kivu, are growing more crowded and living conditions are deteriorating further, with severely limited access to basic needs such as proper shelter, food, water, sanitation facilities, and health care," the report highlighted.

Local volunteers on the ground say they are worried about the continued fighting and its devastating impact on internally displaced people.

Bahati Masudi, a civil society official, highlighted that displaced persons have not received any aid since the truce was declared.

"On the contrary, people continue to die, some from hunger, others killed by rebel bullets, the rebels are still violating humanitarian rights in full view of everyone, under the silence of the international community," Masudi told DW.

Calls for sanctions as cease-fire violations persist 

Some analysts are alarmed by the disregard for any form of truce to provide relief to civilians who are in dire need of aid.

On July 16, bombs were launched from areas occupied by M23 rebels, targeting the town of Bweremana in Masisi territory, North Kivu, on the Sake-Minova road.

Civilians were killed and several others wounded. Henry Pacifique Mayala, coordinator of the Kivu Security Barometer, a research institute documenting armed groups in eastern Congo, said that warring parties refusing to respect peace deals must be sanctioned.

"We talked about the recent truce violation, but nothing has been done," he told DW. "We know that there were deaths in a camp for displaced people in Bweremana, and we know in which direction the bombs fell on the population. And so we'll have to act, because we've acted too much with the carrot, now we'll have to act with the stick."

Regional geopolitical impact

Political analyst Jack Kahorha in Goma fears that the conflict is far from ending anytime soon due to the significant differences between the M23 rebel group, which is allegedly backed by neighboring Rwanda, and pro-government militias.

"Of course everybody would like to see peace really being restored and discussions among the leaders," Kahorha told DW, refering to Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.

Kahorha said, "what we can see on the field is that when the president [Tshisekedi] is speaking in DRC, he shows the impression that he's not ready to talk to his counterpart," adding that such a stance does not inspire confidence that the conflict will be resolved soon.

Meanwhile the current deployment of a Southern African Development Community (SADC)mission to eastern Congo which was expected to help defeat the rebels seems to have rather complicated matters geopolitically.

"So, SADC is a completely different intervention force. SADC mission mandate is to actively fight M23," Daniel van Dalen, a signal risk analyst based in South Africa, told DW.

But since December 2023, when the SADC sent a military force to support the Congolese government to push out rebels, the troops have yet to halt the influence of M23 rebels.

Kahorha says the coordination of the activities of the troops backing the Congolese army hasn't been effective, complicating the conflict.

"This [troop deployments] seems to complicate things because the coordination is not at one side. We find disorder somehow, there is something really complicating things in terms of operations," Kahorha said.

Van Dalen agrees that the SADC mission must do more to push the rebels back. He emphasized that logistical support is crucial for success.

"They don't have that now, you know, and that is widely perceived as something that they're going to have to get in order to actually make a difference. Otherwise, they're going to keep being prevented from actually expanding their presence," he said.

"So, unfortunately, the SADC mission is on a backfoot. As you said it's early days but I'm optimistic that the announcement of MONUSCO support for it [SADC] could potentially change that over the coming months, but that will very much largely depend on if they can get air support.”

Internally displaced people like Samuel Birichera still hope to return to their villages someday, but there is no guarantee that will happen anytime soon.

Zanem Netz Zaidi in Goma, Cai Nebe, and Chrispin Mwakideu contrubuted reporting

Edited by: Keith Walker

While you're here: Every weekday, we host AfricaLink, a podcast packed with news, politics, culture and more. You can listen and follow AfricaLink wherever you get your podcasts.